‘Saga of the Monarch’ Lecture to Be Held April 16

Journey to Mexico's butterfly sanctuaries and stand among hundreds of millions of monarchs as they complete their remarkable migration.

A lecture on “The Grand Saga of the Monarch Butterfly” will be presented by Dr. Lincoln P. Brower, research professor, Sweetbriar College, Wednesday April 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schoenberg Auditorium of Ridgway Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The event is free and open to the public. People are asked to R.S.V.P. to hintonpa@umsl.edu.

For more than half a century, Professor Lincoln Brower has been investigating the biology of the monarch butterfly. Many of the widely known facts about monarchs which are presented in biology classes and nature documentaries have come out of his research on the monarch butterflies’ chemical defense against predators and the ecological chemistry of the butterflies’ interactions with their milkweed hostplants.

In this lecture, Professor Brower will present a first-person account of his field expeditions and lab explorations, and describe the conservation issues that threaten the butterflies’ unique migration and wintering biology.

The lecture is cosponsored by Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Zoo and the St. Louis Academy of Science.